The game of Pai Gow Poker, sometimes called Asian Poker, is a relatively new type of poker game that has gained acceptance by casinos at almost all major gambling centers. The game is played with a single standard deck of 52 playing cards plus a Joker.
The game is typically started by each player placing an ante or bet and then a dealer dealing seven cards to himself and each of six players. Usually, the dealer is a casino employee. As explained hereinafter, the players compete against the casino via the dealer.
A player forms two hands from his seven-card holding. One hand, called a Low Hand, consists of two of the seven player's cards. The other hand, called a High Hand, consists of the remaining five cards of the player's hand. In a similar manner, the dealer forms a High Hand and a Low Hand from his seven cards.
The only requirement in forming the hands is that the Low Hand must be of a lower rank than the High Hand. The ranking of a hand is the same as in traditional poker with the exception that the joker can be used to represent an Ace or to represent one card of either a straight or a flush. Because of the joker, five aces is the hand with the highest possible rank.
When the player forms his Low Hand and his High Hand so that they are respectively higher in rank than the Low Hand and the High Hand of the dealer, the player is a winner and the dealer is a loser. Conversely, when the player forms his Low Hand and his High Hand so that they are respectively lower in rank than a Low Hand and a High Hand of the dealer, the player is a loser and the dealer is a winner. In cases where one of the player's hands is of the same rank as a corresponding one of the dealer's hands, the dealer's hand is deemed to be of higher rank than the player's hand.
When the player's Low Hand is of a higher rank than the dealer's Low Hand and the player's High Hand is of lower rank than the dealer's High Hand, what is known as a push exists. Similarly, the push exists when the player's Low Hand is of a lower rank than the dealer's Low Hand and the player's High Hand is of higher rank than the dealer's High Hand. When the push exists, there is no winner.
A determination of a winner correspondingly determines the outcome of the bet between the player and the dealer. Hence, the wager is neither won nor lost when the push exists. Approximately forty percent of the outcomes in Pai Gow Poker are pushes. The occurrence of a push diminishes the excitement of Pai Gow Poker. Since approximately forty percent of the outcomes in Pai Gow Poker are pushes, Pai Gow Poker might be made more exciting by adding an aspect of competition that is dependent solely upon the player's Low or High Hands.